Blood Ties

Chapter 25: Nadia

Nadia stared deep into the closet as though waiting for a suitable gown to magically appear. She and Declan had been summoned to sup with the king but it seemed that her only choices were to attend such a banquet naked, or clad in threadbare, shabby clothes. With a sigh, she laid down her pride and asked her maid to send for Declan.

He appeared at her door within ten minutes, wearing his weapons belt and looking about the room as though he were checking for robbers. "What is it? You said you had an urgent problem."

"Yes, I have nothing to wear," she said, gesturing toward the closet.

"Unless I'm mistaken, you seem to be donning clothing right now, priestess," he said, lowering his sword and tucking his dagger away. "When you told me there was an emergency, I was under the belief that you were in imminent danger, Nadia."

"I only said that I needed your help right away," she retorted.

"Yes, well, can you blame me? Considering all the danger you seem to attract..." His voice trailed off as he, too, peered into her wardrobe.

"I am wearing clothing, but not attire suitable to dine with a king," Nadia emphasized. "Or have the thirteen years away from court caused you to forget courtly customs?"

He was already distracted, barking orders to her maid in rapid-fire Astroian. The girl, Lavinia, darted off in a flurry of grey skirts and white apron. "No worries, Nadia. I've given her instructions to procure the finest gowns from my sisters' old chambers for you to try on."

Nadia frowned. "Won't your sisters be at the banquet?"

"No, no, they're all married off to foreign princes. The closest of them is in Vytia," he explained.

"Then why are their clothes still in the palace?" she asked.

"'Tis an Astroian custom," he said. "We don't get rid of the majority of a person's possessions unless they choose to themselves. Otherwise, it is said to be preparing for their death, and misfortune may befall them."

At the word befall, she crinkled her nose. "Awfully superstitious of you."

Before Declan could answer, Lavinia knocked on the door. "Here are the clothes, Your Highness."

Nadia stared, agape, at the selection of silks, satins, linen, cotton, and wool arrayed on the bed. She'd never seen so many clothes, finery, and frippery in one place. The maid had rather outdone herself in bringing nearly all the contents of the closets of Declan's sisters' old chambers, but without discretion for which items would be worn for which occasion. She had brought so many garments that she'd even enlisted two footmen to stagger up with trunks of clothing.

"You don't mean to tell me that these are the styles typically worn in the Astroian court to meet the king?" Nadia picked up a silk garment that looked like it would slide off of the wearer's body at any moment, held up as it was by only a complicated set of ties and straps.

"That's nonsense," Declan said, stiffening. "I never saw any of my sisters wear this garment, much less to dinner."

"When was the last time you saw your sisters to begin with?" Nadia asked as she discarded the scandalous dress for another, more modest one.

"Ten years or so," he said casually. "Then I was stationed elsewhere. But surely, styles haven't changed so much since I was at court."

"You would be right, Your Highness," said the maid. "That garment is a nightgown."

They looked at one another and tried not to laugh.

Declan pointed at a deep, emerald-green gown. Cut from a silky fabric, it shone with a gossamer sheen, belted at the waist with a corset of diamonds. "That one. It matches your eyes."